


growing pains

by aryasbadbenergy



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Haunted House, Mild Gore, and keep it to a minimum, gendrya gift exchange, gore/blood mentions but i tried to emphasize that it was fake each time, sorta friends to sorta flirty, the frightened hand holding, the let me put you on my shoulders so you can see, the slightly awkward flirting because gendry never learned, theme park, they do swear when they get scared lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:20:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28210800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aryasbadbenergy/pseuds/aryasbadbenergy
Summary: A little healthy competition between friends never hurts. Arya and Gendry find themselves in a bet with four other friends to see who can endure the haunted house attractions at a theme park the longest.for medefreaky for the 2020 gendrya gift exchange !(named for growing pains by coin)
Relationships: Arya Stark/Gendry Waters
Comments: 21
Kudos: 79
Collections: Gendrya Gift Exchange 2020





	growing pains

**Author's Note:**

  * For [medefreaky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/medefreaky/gifts).



> i am so sorry that this got posted so late but i got my days mixed up ! 
> 
> i hope it’s a fun read for all because i had a lot of fun writing it and halloween is my favorite holiday so i couldnt pass up the prompt when i saw it aha

**Why don't you calm down  
For crying out loud  
I'm losing it lately  
I'm young and I'm dumb  
I'll live and I'll learn  
Yeah, what's the hurry now?**

**Growing Pains ~ COIN**

“I love haunted houses,” Willow says. “They’re just so cool.” She has been hyping herself up for this night for the past week by talking about how much she loves Halloween and being scared. Arya can’t remember a time that Willow hasn’t kicked into fight-or-flight (with an emphasis on fight) after someone scares her, but she figures hyping can’t hurt anybody. She doesn’t want to kill Willow’s hope, even though Arya is pretty sure she’s going to beat her tonight easily. 

“Yeah, but that’s because you and Jeyne run a haunted inn,” Lommy argues. 

“It’s not haunted. You guys are just a bunch of babies,” Willow mocks. 

Arya turns to look at Willow and raises her eyebrows. “Yeah, I agree with Lommy, Willow has the unfair advantage since she lives in a real haunted house,” Arya says and Shireen nods from the driver’s seat. 

“Shireen, you have to turn here,” Hot Pie says. 

“Right or left?” 

“Oh yeah, that’s important, make a right,” he says. “And Willow, your inn is haunted.”

“Yeah, honestly Willow, everytime I stay at the inn, I do fear for my life.” Everyone, except Shireen being the careful driver that she is, turns to look at Gendry’s interjection from the back seat. He was Hot Pie’s roommate, and everyone had met him before, but no one had ever hung out with the guy. And according to Hot Pie, Gendry never hung out with anyone. 

But they all agreed to pay whoever stayed in the haunted house the longest twenty dollars each, so Gendry was not about to pass up the chance for a hundred bucks. Arya knew Lommy, Hot Pie, and Shireen were giving themselves too much credit thinking that they could outlast Arya or Willow, but now with Gendry in the mix, competition is gonna get interesting. She has no idea what he’s like, but considering he was willingly hanging out with an extra three people he barely knew on a Friday night just for the chance at a hundred dollars, Arya assumes he’s going to be a final contender. 

“Well if it’s so haunted, why are we going to a theme park for the bet when we can stay at the inn for free?”

“One, you’re out of your mind if you think Jeyne would even let us breathe the air there for free,” Lommy says. “And two, you sleep there everyday, you would win.”

“Bold of you to assume anyone in this car is going to beat me,” she taunts. “You’re all a bunch of babies.”

“Ease it with the trash talk. We’re not even in the house yet,” Shireen says as she pulls into a parking spot. Everyone grabs their entrance fee from their pockets or wallets and climbs out of the car. Arya isn’t sure whose idea it was to put Gendry in the back because he has to hunch over and turn to the side to get past the middle row in Shireen’s van and nearly knocks down Arya trying to get out. 

“Shit, sorry,” he says, letting go of the handle inside and sliding the door shut behind him. 

“S’fine,” she says and takes a step back. “If I can’t brave you falling on me, I’m probably not suited for the haunted house.” 

“Gendry’s more likely to crush you than anything in that house,” Lommy says as he climbs out with only half of Gendry’s hassle. 

“Okay. Let’s go,” Shireen says and Hot Pie leads them through the park after they pay for their entrance fee. 

“Should we eat first?” Lommy asks. 

“No.” Willow says, without offering any extra information.

“Why not?”

“What if someone gets sick?” She says. 

“Does that happen often?” Hot Pie asks. 

Willow shrugs. 

“Stop trying to scare everyone,” Shireen says. “They’re scared enough without you feeding into it.”

“I’m not trying to do anything,” she says and smiles innocently at the group. 

Arya turns to Gendry and rolls her eyes. He nearly smiles.

The line to get in is long since only groups of six are allowed every ten minutes, so Willow naturally uses the time in line to her advantage. 

“Last year, when I was here with Jeyne, she got so terrified that I grabbed her arm and ran out of the house as fast as I could without looking back. I didn’t realize it until the end, but I grabbed a goat mutant instead, covered in crusted blood.” 

“I’m sure you were just as calm then as you are while telling the story, now,” Arya says and Willow scowls. 

“I’m not frightened by childish things, I promise.” 

“Well, we’ll prove that in a half hour.”

Willow crosses her arms. Arya mimics her stance. 

They were usually great friends, but maybe there was only room for one overly competitive friend per group bet. 

“You two are unbelievable,” Hot Pie says. 

When their turn gets closer, an employee tells them the rules and hands them each a waiver. Arya skims through it before signing, but Lommy and Willow don’t even look first. Shireen is the last to turn hers in. 

They step up to the obnoxiously decorated houses. It looks like someone had taken the castles right from Harrenhal Horror and told a couple elementary students to go crazy. It was so overdone that Arya couldn’t even find it cool, let alone scary. But Hot Pie still gulps as they walk up the steps and Arya holds back a laugh. If the houses looked the same on the inside as they did on the outside, this was going to be a piece of cake. 

Arya thinks the laminated reminder sign saying “No Cell Phones” is probably going to be the scariest part for Willow. Arya turns her phone off along with the rest of the group. 

Shireen walks in first with Willow following closely behind and Gendry has to give Hot Pie a firm pat on the back to get him to take a step forward. 

“This is a no contact one, right?” Lommy asks. 

“Who knows? Didn’t you read the fine print?” Arya says and walks through the door. She’s met with one small light in the middle of the room. 

“What do you think is gonna be first?” Hot Pie hurriedly asks. Arya shrugs. “Just the kiddie stuff, I’m sure,” she says as she sees the start of the fake gore before Hot Pie does. Cannibalism is always a solid start for a House of Horrors. Hot Pie does not have a strong stomach for any of it after watching Sweeney Todd with Arya and Lyanna last year. Gendry lets out a quiet laugh as Shireen shivers and gives them a disgusted look when she turns around to see if they’re still behind her. 

According to Hot Pie, Gendry was “Shireen’s brother or something” and she had yet to be so invested in their family drama to ask what “or something” could possibly mean. She had met him a few times at his and Hot Pie’s apartment, but she never really would have thought him to be conversational. 

“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Hot Pie whimpers behind Arya as the actors hiss at them as they walk by, showing the red paint acting as blood lining their mouths. Arya has the decency to feel a little bad for him and shoves him to the other side of her. 

“Good idea, the cannibals probably want me more than you. I bet they can sense my fear,” he says, but she pulls away when he tries to grab her hand with his clammy one.

She doesn’t feel  _ that _ bad for him. Somewhere in their walk through the first part, Shireen had handed off her position as leader to Willow, and ended up standing behind her. Arya can see the handle of the door shadowed on the wall by it, so at least they were gonna be out of this room soon enough. 

Willow rattles the knob to the door and shoves it open when one of the cannibals walks towards her while scraping together a big fork and knife. The sound is the worst part for Arya, but since she’s not the one currently being hunted, she probably shouldn’t say what she hates about it. 

“Oh, good, killer clowns,” Gendry says, seeing past the heads in front of them into the next room. The lights strobe from the room ahead, and Arya wonders if that’s better than the dim room. 

“Killer  _ what _ ?” Shireen whispers.

“Go on,” Gendry says and pushes her forward. Shireen grabs the back of Willow’s jacket and surprisingly, Willow doesn’t bat her off. She takes a deep breath when the clowns start to crowd them at the door entrance and shoves past two in front of her before sprinting to the next door, pulling Shireen along. Hot Pie turns around to see the cannibals start to crowd around them, too. “Come on,” Gendry grunts and shoves Hot Pie forward, too. He timidly walks towards the clowns who are now baring their teeth. “Hot Pie, where’s Lommy?”

“He was here a second ago,” Hot Pie shouts as he lets the clowns come closer. 

Arya doesn’t need any pushing and sprints through the killer clowns. She thinks about pulling Hot Pie along with her, but she doesn’t want to be in charge of him the whole time he stays. “One man down,” Arya shouts, so Willow and Shireen can hear that the competition has gotten smaller and meets them behind the cracked door. They wait until Gendry and Hot Pie come through the door before they continue. Arya’s grateful that this door so far doesn’t have anyone behind it but them and blindingly bright lights. The inconsistencies were going to drive her mad. She looks around the room and sighs when she sees the next door is just a fireplace.

“I don’t know where Lommy is,” Hot Pie says again.

“The cannibals probably got him,” Gendry says.

“Oh, Gods. If I leave, I have to walk past the cannibals again,” Hot Pie says and takes a deep breath. “And the clowns. I hate this!” 

Arya shakes her head. “There’s an emergency exit,” she says and points at the only door in the room. Hot Pie doesn’t look back as he runs for the exit, and turns the corner once he’s outside, no doubt looking for Lommy.

“Make that two,” Gendry adds. 

The group turns to the fireplace and Arya notices it has a small tube leading up at a messy angle. A ladder runs down the back of it.

“I guess we have to climb through here.” Shireen timidly says.

“I’ll go first,” Willow says and kneels to get through the opening. Shireen looks at Gendry and winces. 

“If I had to turn back that wouldn’t be fair. You can all fit through there for sure.” 

“Them’s the brakes,” Arya teases. He rolls his eyes at her and motions for her to go ahead of him with his arm.

Willow’s voice calls down the ladder and Shireen climbs up with Arya close behind her. Gendry takes a deep breath behind her.

“Time to suck it in,” she teases. “If you can get out of Shireen’s minivan, you can totally get through,” she says, offering some encouragement. 

“Stop being so supportive,” Willow says. “This is a competition, remember?”

“Says the one who shielded Shireen through the killer clowns,” Arya mutters.

“You know I don’t like clowns, Arya. I won’t be bitter if Willow shields you through a zombie room.”

“Zombies are a real threat, how do we know that they aren’t building up their armies in theme parks, ready to attack when they know we think they’re just actors?” Arya argues. 

“If you think the killer clowns from a few summers ago weren’t a real threat, you’re not allowed to say zombies are,” Shireen argues right back.

“Threat or not, I’m not shielding anyone,” Willow says. “It’s every person for themselves.”

Arya looks back to Gendry, who hasn’t said a word throughout the tiff. “You doing alright back there?”

“Yep,” he grunts and reaches for the next rung, without moving his shoulder too much. 

“Hope you’re not claustrophobic.”

“You’re not helping,” he mutters.

“That’s the point,” she says and pauses while Shireen pulls herself over the ledge where Willow sits. Arya moves up a few more rungs and pulls herself up, too. They wait for Gendry, and he struggles around the bend without having good range of his arms, and he almost reaches the next rung before he’s pulled. 

“Seven hells, I don’t need this,” he shouts and shakes his leg. “I’m not already having a rough fucking time, huh?” He shouts a few more expletives down the tunnel at the actor and Arya holds back a laugh while she reaches for his hand and Willow does the same. 

“Every person for themselves, huh?” Shireen asks. 

“This isn’t about you, Shireen,” Gendry yells and Willow and Arya finally pull him free. They don’t stop to catch their breath before they start running and deep down Arya knows the people chasing them are just actors, but she still regrets going to a contact-allowed House of Horrors. 

“I don’t think I like this anymore,” Shireen admits, when the piano in the room starts playing loudly with no one by it. 

“It’s just speakers somewhere,” Arya says. Shireen nods, and follows closely behind Willow through the room. They’re almost to the door, when a hooked man jumps in front of their line and screams. They all scream back, even Gendry, which makes Arya feel a little bad that he’s at the back of the line after the tunnel. 

“How—how can you play the piano with only a hook for a hand?” Shireen shouts and Arya sees the actor try to hold back a laugh as he steps out of their way to cover his mouth with his non-hook hand.

“Good save, Shireen,” Willow says breathlessly and starts to walk forward again. 

The door leads them down the steps and out of the house. Arya begs to stop for a second so they can catch their breath away from the attractions, but when a vampire jumps out from under the stairs, they change their minds immediately and scramble into the next house. 

They open the door and the worst scenes from the Saw movies play on a projector in front of them, and the tools in the room match the movie props, down to all the gory extras Arya could have lived happily without seeing. 

“Yeah, Willow, I think you were right about dinner,” Shireen says. 

“It’s all fake,” Gendry reminds, but Shireen shakes her head and runs out the door they came in. 

“Well, looks like it’s just us three,” Arya says. “Shireen lasted a lot longer than I expected,” she admits. 

“Shireen‘s stronger than she seems,” Gendry says. 

“Say that five times fast,” Willow says and Arya laughs. They walk through the next door, and Arya wonders if this house has a film theme, because the two little girls from the Shining stare back at them. From every direction, with “redrum” painted above their heads in the mirrors. The lights keep flickering, so they have to feel their way in front of them so they don’t run into any mirrors. 

Arya really doesn’t need seven years of bad luck to start while she’s in the middle of the House of Horrors. 

“I think we’ve got turned around,” Willow says. 

“How could you possibly tell that,” Gendry mutters. “Every mirror in here looks the exact same.” 

“Where did the little girls go?” Arya asks. Willow and Gendry pause. 

“Just don’t turn around,” Willow suggests. 

“Or look in mirrors, then,” Arya says. 

Arya hears some scuffing behind them. She turns fast as soon as the lights turn on. 

“Cardboard cutout,” Gendry says. “Very scary.”

Arya and Willow both laugh, but then the person in charge of moving the cardboard cutout jumps up. 

“BOO!”

They apparently hadn’t thought about how the cutout was moving about the room and scream in unison again. 

“Oh, fuck you, man!” Willow shouts. They frantically look for a door in the mirrors. They make it to the door, finally, but it turns out to be the door right back into the Saw room and Willow slams it shut. 

“If I lift one of you up, can you look for the door over the mirrors?” Gendry asks. 

“I feel like that’s probably cheating, but I’m desperate to get out of this room,” Arya says and freely allows Gendry to lift her. He wraps his arms around her legs and she presses her palms on his shoulders for support. She tries not to think too much about the way his breath tickles her stomach. The scattered patterns of the mirrors make it easy to tell why they kept getting turned around, but she looks along the walls for a door. She sees a false door towards the middle of the room and really hates her decision to participate in this stupid bet. She makes eye contact with the guy pushing around the cardboard cutout when the lights flicker on and she hopes she’s not breaking too big of a rule. She turns her head and looks along the wall closest to them.

“There!” She says and points to a door only a few mirrors away from the door they entered from. 

These assholes. 

Gendry sets her down and they follow Willow who’s already walking towards the door. The door doesn’t open all the way since it’s blocked by something, which isn’t a good sign in this place. They slip through the door into the red light and something bangs every few moments. Arya jumps each time and she’s sure Gendry and Willow do, but they’re both behind her now. 

Everytime Arya thinks she’s started to learn the timing of the bangs, it changes. 

“Am I hearing… hooves?” Arya asks and Willow groans behind her. 

“It better not be.”

Something bleats and Willow turns around to reach for the door handle. 

“Jeyne wasn’t terrified,” Willow admits. “It was me. They had this same character last year and I couldn’t do it,” she opens the door and steps outside it, but Arya doesn’t let her close it all the way yet. 

“We won’t leave you alone,” Arya says.

“I fucking hate goats!” Willow shouts. “I don’t want to go back in there!” 

“Fair enough,” Gendry says. Willow leaves and Gendry turns to Arya. “And then there were two.”

“We can brave the goatman,” she says and Gendry nods. 

The goatman makes a bleating sound and Arya turns back around. 

“Do you see the door?” 

He shakes his head. The goatman stares at them and Arya understands why Willow doesn’t like him. They walk along the walls of the room slowly, without taking their eyes off the goatman, because Arya feels like he could and totally would pounce at any moment. She feels a door handle behind her and twists it. Gendry stumbles in with her and they shut the door.

Arya stays still for a few moments, hoping that maybe lights will come on or even flash, but no lights come on.

Arya does not like the dark. She can’t think of anyone who actually likes the dark, but that doesn’t make up for the fact that she really does not like the dark.

“Gendry?”

“I’m behind you,” he promises, and she hopes that he is the one that just brushed her elbow. Willow’s story about the goatman has her a little concerned now. 

“I’m gonna grab your hand,” she says. “If that’s okay.”

“S’fine,” he says and she reaches behind her. She does not use wanting to hold his hand as an excuse to feel him up, and apologizes as soon as she rubs her hand against his stomach. 

“Just don’t move,” he says and grabs her wrist to pull away from his stomach and then grips her hand. “Good?”

“Good,” he replies and she takes a cautious step forward. 

“And we’re not gonna talk about this, right?” 

“Of course,” he says and steps forward with her. 

She stretches her other hand in front of her to feel her way in front of her and realizes she misses the lighting in all of the other rooms. Even the room that was only lit up by the Saw film. 

She grips Gendry’s hand tighter, hoping maybe the promise of a hundred dollars for the winner can wait long enough for them to get through this room. 

Her fingers brush up against something and she steps back into Gendry immediately.

“Are you alright?” 

“Oh, Gods. I think I just touched someone.” She can’t tell if the breathing is Gendry’s or the thing in front of her, but she does not want to stay in this room long enough to find out. She steps to the side, hoping to avoid whoever is in front of her. It felt like they were wearing a mummy costume, and she is probably the least scared of mummies out of all the creatures they’ve encountered tonight. She feels behind her and thinks maybe she’s against a wall now. She turns and slides her free hand along the wall. Gendry works next to her and he jiggles a doorknob. He opens the door and Arya glances in the room with the small amount of light the open door offers. It looks like they’re in a hallway with a lot of different doors. She only sees a glimpse of the actor she touched before she steps though the door with Gendry. 

“Bro, I am straight up not having a good time,” she mutters and Gendry lets out a light laugh as they look around the room with their backs pressed against the door. She doesn’t release their hands, and neither does he. 

The room is covered in a fake snow made out of pulled cotton balls or something like that, and someone had dripped red food coloring along the white snow. Arya didn’t have any qualms with this room since it was well lighted, and it looked like no one was in it besides them. But it dead ended with smears of fake blood over the wall across from them. 

“Can we hide for a minute?” 

Arya doesn’t object to his suggestion. 

They catch their breath and wait a few moments before Arya reaches for the door handle again. She goes straight across the hall to the other door she had seen and opens it up. 

This room is dark, too and someone pops out from behind the door and grabs their shoulders. 

“Seven hells!” Gendry shouts and pulls her out of the room. They run into another person in the dark and they hurriedly back up. Someone stands behind them and now there’s a person on all sides of them. 

“You get one more guess,” a gurgling voice says. 

That better not be a fucking zombie. 

Arya’s not sure how many other doors there are in the hallway, but she’d rather not stick around to find out what happens if she gets her guess wrong. 

“Fuck this,” she says and lets go of Gendry’s hand. “I hate the dark, you get the money.” She squeezes between two of the actors and hopes the door she picks is the door they came in because she does not want to have to feel around for another door in the dark. 

She doesn’t hear Gendry move, and she pulls on the door, grateful to feel the bitter chill in the air outside. 

“Wait for me!” He calls and she can barely make out him squeezing past the actors and rushing towards her. 

They slam the door shut behind them and look for the gates to the House of Horrors. There was only one house left, but Arya would be okay never knowing what was in it as long as they could leave and be with their friends, right now. 

They spot Hot Pie hovering by the exit first and run towards them. 

“Thank Gods,” Hot Pie says. “We thought you guys were actually going to finish the houses and we wouldn’t have a winner. But one of you had to choose to leave first for the other to tail, so who was it?”

Arya points to the center of her chest. 

“Really?” Lommy asks. 

Arya nods and Lommy reaches into his pocket to pull out a collection of ones and fives for Gendry. 

“Thank you.”

The rest of the group hands him twenty dollars, even a begrudging Willow. 

Gendry says “thank you” everytime he’s handed his money, and it’s starting to feel a bit like he’s rubbing it in.

“Okay, I’d like to leave this park now, please,” Shireen says. “And eat something.”

The group agrees and they start their walk to the nearest food truck. “Everyone better wash their hands first, though. Who knows what you touched in that place?” 

Lommy waits until Shireen happens to look at him and licks his hand. 

“You’re disgusting and I hate you,” she says. 

“What? I didn’t even go in, Shireen!”

“You are way too hold for me to explain the importance of hand washing. There’s no hope left for you,” she mutters. 

They order their food and wash their hands (even Lommy does) while they’re waiting like obedient children for Shireen and she grins. 

They sit down at a table on the patio, and Arya expects Gendry to sit down with them, but he walks to a small table at the edge of the patio and sits down. She wonders if being alone is his way to decompress after the jarring experience, but doesn’t want to bother him. She finishes her sandwich and the table has lively discussions about how much they hated the houses and which parts specifically. She’s not surprised that Lommy admits he didn’t make it past the front door of the first house as soon as he realized what was in the waiver he signed. 

“Is Gendry okay?” Arya asks, mostly to Shireen and Hot Pie, but Willow had apparently known him since grade school, so Arya wouldn’t be shocked if she knew if Gendry seemed different or not, too. 

“Oh yeah, he’s fine,” Hot Pie says. “He doesn’t like to hang out in big groups, and he was around people all night. He just needs time,” he says. Shireen nods in agreement. 

Willow doesn’t bring up her haunted house prowess again, but she does decide it might be time for roller coasters. 

“I’ll tell Gendry,” Arya offers and reaches for the trays to toss them. She stops at the trash can first and then she walks to his table and stands in front of him.

“Hey,” he says. 

“Hey. We’re getting ready to head over to some of the roller coasters to cheer ourselves up a bit if you wanna join us.”

Gendry nods. “I know I promised not to talk about it again, but I thought the way you grabbed my hand was kind of cute.” His ears turn a little pink as he says it and it makes Arya grin to know he braved the House of Horrors the longest, but was still nervous to call her cute. “If you get scared on the roller coasters, feel free to do it again,” he says. With the way his cheeks start to blush, Arya is surprised he got the whole thought out.

“You grabbed my hand,” she says, knowing it’s a lie. 

Gendry shrugs and pushes his chair out to stand. “If you say so.”


End file.
